Tuesday morning Ray Dunaway and Joe D’Ambrosio of WTIC-AM 1080 announced with sadness that traffic pilot/reporter Mike Alan is being “let go” one month shy of his 40th anniversary with the station. He’s a casualty of the cutbacks made recently by station owner Entercom.
Big changes had already come to his job in 2017 when digital technology meant he no longer flew his Cessna to do the reports but reported via digital cameras.
Mike talked with Ray & Joe about changes he’s seen during his 4-decade tenure.
- While there’s more traffic now, he says, he sees different patterns because at one time all the morning traffic flowed into Hartford.
- In the 80s when Pratt & Whitney went on summer vacation the highways were emptier than they were during the early days of the current pandemic.
- His saddest day at work: the 2005 tragic accident at the base of Avon Mountain on Route 44.
- A fun one: functioning as an airborne state trooper. Two “love-crazed” 18 year olds from Vermont stole a car to elope in New York. Mike helped law enforcement track them and they were eventually shipped back to Vermont.
Ray & Joe’s sign-off to Mike: “It has been an honor to share the airwaves with you. We’re not happy, we’re a little bit angry. But thank you for being the class act you are.”
